Social Affairs
Emilia Terzon, ABC News, Wednesday 22nd April 2020
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following article contains names, images and descriptions of people who have died. Lawyers for a vulnerable Aboriginal man who was jailed for weeks in a court bungle and slapped with a fine for sleeping on a park bench during the coronavirus state of emergency say the case reeks of "unfairness and injustice". "I was very angry and outraged that this happened to my client," criminal lawyer Tessa Theocharous said.
Dana MacCauley, SMH, Tuesday 21st April 2020
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has urged aged care operators to allow visitors for the sake of residents' wellbeing, saying it was never the national cabinet's advice to "shut people off or to lock them away in their rooms". "We are very concerned about the impact of restrictions that had been put in place in aged care facilities over and above what was recommended," Mr Morrison told reporters in Canberra after Tuesday's national cabinet meeting.
Sue Dunlevy, The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 22nd April 2020
We’ve been told to stand 1.5 metres from others to stop the spread of COVID-19. But alarming new research has found droplets of the deadly virus can travel far further. And researchers are warning medical staff are being incorrectly told surgical masks are enough to protect them from infection when the research now suggests a P2 respirator mask is needed. Researchers from the University NSW and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) examined multiple studies on the distance travelled by respiratory droplets to reach the conclusions.
Economy
Gareth Hutchins, ABC News, Wednesday 22nd April 2020
Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe has warned Australia is this year likely to experience its biggest contraction in national output since the Great Depression. He also cautioned against lifting social-distancing restrictions too quickly, and said if coronavirus re-emerges and the tough restrictions had to be reimposed "the loss of incomes and jobs would be even more pronounced". Speaking in Sydney, Dr Lowe warned: "The next few months are going to be difficult ones for the Australian economy."
David Sparks, ABC Radio, Wednesday 22nd April 2020
Prime Minister Scott Morrison delivered a warning to aged care homes - he says some have been overly harsh in applying restrictions. He also announced the National Cabinet had given in principle support today for the COVID-19 tracing app. Meanwhile, Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe has given a speech calling for reforms to boost growth and productivity, and the oil price has plummeted to a historic low.
Greg Jericho, The Guardian, Sunday 19th April 2020
The IMF this week released projections for the world economy over the next two years that were both optimistic and pessimistic. When the projections were released, I messaged a fellow economics journalist and suggested they were pretty optimistic – he replied that he hoped they would be correct because they were predicting it would only be the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Optimism comes in strange forms these days.
Shane Wright, News Corp, Wednesday 22nd April 2020
Virgin Australia’s voluntary administration could turn out to be a good thing, with history showing other companies came out stronger. Virgin Australia is down but not out, insolvency experts insist. The airline has been placed into voluntary administration with massive debts of about $5 billion amid a destructive travel downturn crippled by the coronavirus pandemic. But it's not the first iconic company to hand over its books to an insolvency firm as co-founder Sir Richard Branson — whose group owns 10 per cent in the Queensland-based entity — insists “this is not the end”.
Phillip Coorey, AFR, Wednesday 22nd April 2020
The Morrison government will provide the regulatory environment necessary to ensure Virgin Australia survives, including preventing rival Qantas from abusing its market power to "crush" the restructured airline as it tries to re-establish itself. After Virgin went into voluntary administration on Tuesday, the government also announced former Macquarie Group chief executive Nicholas Moore would work with administrators to give the restructure every chance of success.
Linda Mottram, ABC News, Wednesday 22nd April 2020
Virgin's plight is making regional Australia very nervous. Many in the regions rely on the airline to provide affordable flights, which make it easier to live in the bush and still visit families in the cities. But it's also pivotal to tourism in the regions.
Sophie Elsworth, The Daily Telegraph, Tuesday 21st April 2020
The Australian Taxation Office has sent out important information to cash-strapped people who are rushing to access their retirement savings early. This is what you must do next. Anxious Australians waiting patiently to access their superannuation early are being issued important information from the Australian Taxation Office. On Tuesday it was revealed 975,300 had registered their interest to access super early ahead of the giant retirement $3 trillion kitty being opened up this week.
Fergus Hunter, SMH, Tuesday 21st April 2020
Australia Post will reduce letter deliveries to every second day in metropolitan areas under a major overhaul during the COVID-19 crisis as chief executive Christine Holgate warns the postal service is responding to a decade's worth of transformation in the space of a month. While the collapse in business activity across the country has slashed letter volumes, which may never recover, the crisis has fuelled "phenomenal" growth in parcel delivery. Ms Holgate said the relaxation of long-standing standards on delivery times and frequency, announced on Tuesday, amounted to the biggest shift for the government-owned business in two decades.
Climate and Energy
Mike Foley, SMH, Tuesday 21st April 2020
Energy Minister Angus Taylor wants Australia to capitalise on depressed global oil and gas markets to deliver cheap energy for industry and boost the strategic oil reserve during the coronavirus crisis. The price of crude oil has plummeted, driven down by a price war among producing nations and coronavirus restrictions. The spot price for liquefied natural gas contracts is tied to the oil price and the gas market, a major energy source for Australian industry and manufacturing, has also seen price falls.
Miki Perkins, SMH, Wednesday 15th April 2020
The true climate impact of new onshore gas exploration and extraction has been underestimated by as much as seven times because the Victorian government excluded emissions produced when the gas is burnt. According to a new briefing paper from policy think tank the Australia Institute, the Andrews government's estimates do not count emissions produced when the gas is burnt for heating, cooking or other end uses.
Politics
Unattributed, ABC News, Wednesday 22nd April 2020
It has been 87 days since Australia's first case of coronavirus was confirmed. Since then, our lives have completely changed as we all do our bit to stop the spread and protect those most vulnerable. It hasn't been easy — but the Prime Minister, Health Minister and Chief Medical Officer have said we're at a critical (but early) stage on the road back to normal.
Dana McCauley, SMH, Tuesday 21st April 2020
The Morrison government is ramping up efforts to convince Australians to download its COVID-19 tracing application as it pushes to "suppress or eliminate" the coronavirus after succeeding in flattening the curve through social distancing measures. Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Tuesday Australia had achieved "a sustained and consolidated flattening of the curve" of the coronavirus' spread, with less than 1 per cent growth in cases over nine consecutive days - and less than half a per cent in the last three days.
Mark Solomons, SMH, Tuesday 21st April 2020
The justification for bans on the sale of firearms and ammunition in three Labor-controlled states has been questioned after it emerged the national cabinet had no active role in the moves, despite this being cited by state ministers and officials. Bans were introduced by governments in Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia at the end of last month as a response to the COVID-19 emergency. Victoria's police minister Lisa Neville announced "a decision of national cabinet to put a temporary ban" on access to firearms at a press conference on March 31 and Queensland officials have also referred to national cabinet playing a central role.
Opinion
Maggie Coggan, ProBono, Tuesday 21st April 2020
The outbreak of COVID-19 has left an enormous workforce gap in many volunteer-reliant charities, but some experts say the pandemic could be a chance for the sector to recreate itself. With corporate volunteering programs grinding to a halt as businesses move to working from home arrangements, and older people who might have casually volunteered being told to stay inside for their own safety, the traditional volunteer pool for many charities has dried up. But according to research by Professor Kirsten Holmes from Curtin University, the outbreak of coronavirus hasn’t stopped people from volunteering, it has just meant they are going about it in slightly different ways.
Caitlin Fitzsimmons, SMH, Wednesday 22nd April 2020
There is an argument doing the rounds that we should lift the coronavirus restrictions for the sake of the younger generation. Sacrifice the old for the young, rather than the young for the old. Note, many of the more prominent voices spouting this nonsense are not exactly young themselves. The argument is offensive because it's telling older people their lives don't matter, while dismissing the real concerns of young people.
John Hewson, The Guardian, Wednesday 22nd April 2020
The coronavirus pandemic should be seen as a dress rehearsal for what awaits us if we continue to ignore the laws of science, the physical world and the demands of several catastrophic threats such as climate change. Just as Australia was disturbingly unprepared for the recent bushfires and drought, even though they had recurred many times in our history, the globe was unprepared for the coronavirus, even though there had been many warnings of the risk over many years.Unfortunately, governments and policy authorities seem incapable of accepting scientific and other evidence, and fail to listen to the clear warnings and predictions. They are also generally unwilling to think longer-term, and strategically, to plan for how to avoid and-or manage a series of catastrophic risks that are mounting and threaten our living standards and lifestyle – and, in the end, human survival.
Samantha Hepburn, ABC News, Wednesday 22nd April 2020
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, global oil prices have plummeted. US oil prices went into negative for the first time ever on Monday — at -$38 a barrel — when oil producers effectively ran out of space to store the supplies of crude oil that have not been used during the pandemic.
Australia must take advantage of this. As a nation dependent upon imported liquid fuel for more than 90 per cent of our refined fuel needs, a glut of cheap oil is a bonanza.
Shane Wright, The Conversation, Wednesday 22nd April 2020
Protests are increasingly breaking out around the world as people begin to chafe against lockdown restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In the US, President Donald Trump is fuelling the spread of protest movements nationwide with tweets to “liberate” certain states. This month, car convoy protests were also held here in Australia, as well as in Poland and Brazil. In Germany, some 300 protesters gathered in a main square in Berlin to protest COVID-19 restrictions, leading to many arrests.
Joshua Black, The Conversation, Wednesday 22nd April 2020
Landing in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, it may seem strange former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s memoir has generated so much political controversy. Turnbull has been accused of hypocrisy and championing socialism, and has been threatened with expulsion from the Liberal Party. In A Bigger Picture, Turnbull deals candidly with his antagonists inside the Coalition, who fought him bitterly on the same-sex marriage reform and climate policy. Similarly, he names and shames those he blames for the leadership insurgency of August 2018. All of this was expected, but none of it must please the current government.
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